Bulls should run as fast as they can from a Lonzo Ball trade

Perhaps if his spotlight-seeking father weren’t a factor, a trade would be more palatable. Or if Lonzo were a better shooter. One or the other negative. But not both.

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Lonzo Ball of the Los Angeles Lakers makes the slam dunk against the Dallas Mavericks on Jan. 7, 2019.

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Lonzo Ball, Chicago Bull?

Lonzo Bull?

In Chicago, the mere thought of it turns brother against brother and friend against friend. Ball is either a point guard with a huge upside or a man whose overbearing father could destroy whatever chemistry a team is trying to create.

Let’s go with B) Don’t do this, John Paxson!

The Bulls vice president didn’t get what he wanted most out of Tuesday’s NBA lottery -- the chance to take Duke’s Zion Williamson or, short of that, the opportunity to select Murray State’s Ja Morant, who would have filled their need at point guard.

Armed with the seventh pick in the June 20 draft, Paxson has said the team is open to all scenarios, including a trade. This has led to speculation that the Bulls would be interested in a deal for Ball, the Lakers point guard.

Problem: There is more not to like about Ball than to like.

He’s an excellent passer, he’s very good in transition and he’s a tough defender. Those are all attributes the Bulls would love in a point guard.

But there are 10 things to dislike about Ball, with LaVar Ball, his father, being Nos. 1-9. LaVar, a stage mom dressed in Big Baller Brand apparel, spent much of his adult life molding his three boys to become basketball players. When Lonzo became successful, LaVar was there, waiting for the cameras to arrive. You needed hydraulics to get him away from a microphone.

He went underground for a long stretch last season, which many saw as a sign he was letting Lonzo be his own man. I saw it as a cicada waiting to emerge from the earth and make a racket. Paxson and Bulls coach Jim Boylen shouldn’t want this guy anywhere near the team. The columnist in me would enjoy the show and the writing material. Pax and LaVar in a cage match? Yes, please.

But it wouldn’t be good for the Bulls. The past several years have instructed us that the father can’t stay away from the son’s career. Lonzo said his brother LaMelo’s high school hoops exploits have become the object of his dad’s attention. That could explain the relative silence from LaVar.

“I think he’s just focused on my little brother,” Lonzo told the New York Times in December. “I’m doing what I’m supposed to do, and he can’t really take me any further with basketball. I got to the league, and that was that. I accomplished what I wanted to do, and now the rest is on me.”

But LaMelo might not end up being the player Lonzo is, and if he fades from basketball relevance, where will LaVar go for attention? Chicago, if Lonzo becomes a Bull.

It says something about this strange, sensitive, Kardashian-esque situation that most of what I’ve written so far has had little do with basketball. There’s one thing about Lonzo Ball’s game that has hurt him – and would hurt the Bulls if they acquired him and allowed him to continue on the same path: his jump shot.

As a fan of basketball, I’m offended by it. Even though he has tinkered with it, it’s still hideous. Most right-handed players have a release point above their forehead or slightly to the right of it. Ball holds the ball to the left of his head as he rises to shoot. It looks like two snakes fighting over dinner. Then he flicks the ball. Upon seeing it, mothers instinctively put their hands over young shooters’ eyes.

A team could live with it if Ball regularly made shots. His form would still be an aesthetic crime, but you’d take the points that came with it. Stevie Ray Vaughan wasn’t exactly a supermodel, but that was missing the point.

In Ball’s two years in the league, he has shot 38 percent from the floor, 31.5 percent on three-pointers and 43.7 percent from the free-throw line. The free-throw percentage is especially disconcerting. It’s at a depth where the sunken remains of Ben Wallace’s free-throw shooting can be found.

Whoever allowed Ball to develop that shot should serve prison time.

Can he change his form and his percentages? Can he change his dad? Sending the No. 7 pick and a player to the Lakers for Lonzo sounds like too much of a gamble on and off the court. Perhaps if LaVar Ball weren’t a factor, a trade would be more palatable. Or if Lonzo were a better shooter. One or the other negative.

But it’s a package deal with two heavy pieces of luggage, and it should make Paxson run as fast as he did in his prime as a player.

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